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Professor Pangloss' 2016 Saga of Folly

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ProfessorPangloss

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Greetings, all. I've been lurking on your blogs and enjoying seeing your preparations, but have been way too busy to post my own. I have been incredibly busy preparing for a huge 2016, with regard to growing tobacco and everything else. Here's the rundown, with some photo assistance:

Most of my efforts this year will be spent on growing food. You can see from my photos that I finished converting my backyard to raised beds (free scrap wood and free black topsoil from a paving project next door). I have also nearly finished building myself a permanent greenhouse (from free windows salvaged from an old house downtown). I like things that are free. I have also built a pretty substantial (for a home gardener) float bed system in my basement, which is already heated. I figured that was a good place to start seeds because the cat doesn't go down there (she ate the tops off most of my tomatoes last year) and I had a countertop that was pretty useless for other things and was just collecting junk. I got a bunch of 48" florescent lights from a friend renovating a shop (also free) and wired them up on chains so I can raise and lower them.

Why the huge setup? I am going to try to sell my tomato plants at the downtown farmers' market, which is a mere 5 minute walk from here. I have a large wooden garden cart my grandfather made about 60 years ago which I will resuscitate as my market cart (free). I've also received permission to use the entire vacant lot I used last year, which allows me more leeway to clear brush and throw away rubble since I am starting much earlier. I will plant whatever tomatoes I don't sell on this vacant lot and try to sell the fruit later in the summer, or if I can't sell it, can/freeze it for my family and friends.

Why the insane level of ball-busting? Anything worth doing is worth overdoing (one of my mottoes). And most importantly, my son is 3 going on 4, and he'll be forming his first memories this year. I want that to include a summer spent with family, tending flowers and food, doing what's important.

If you've made it this far, you'll want to know about tobacco plans. I am also working on a Perique press fashioned from an old cooking pot (more on that later), and I intentionally designed the greenhouse to have high gables without rafters, for hanging leaf right under the clear polycarbonate roof for ideal sun curing (that doesn't take up my whole shed). I plan to grow four varieties: Catterton and Perique (again), and VA Bright Leaf and Semois (new additions). I wouldn't be adverse to some Pennsylvania Red, but I don't have it at the moment and New Hope was sold out.

Here's the float bed with about 1250 tomatoes and such. Float bed 3-5-16.jpg
Here's the beginnings of the greenhouse. Note the Tonka Trucks helping prep the site. Greenhouse 2-20-16.jpg
The greenhouse, a week or so later Greenhouse 2-24-16.jpg
Today, from my kitchen. Note the gable framing without horizontal beams - keeps the loft space clear. The door was on the street near my house, discarded. A little scabbing, and it's up. Optimized-Greenhouse 3-5-16.jpg
Lastly, here's a float tray. It's a 253-count I got from a colleague at work who is taking this year off from growing Burley. I made a seeder from two pieces of venetian blind (at the right side). I got the idea for that from Big Bonner, who has something similar.Optimized-Float tray with seeder.jpg
 

Brown Thumb

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I wish you the best of Luck,
Enjoy and Cherish the time with your little one.
They get Big Quick almost as fast as Baccy.
 

ProfessorPangloss

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Well, things are still crazy here, but I finally seeded my tobacco. I planted the aforementioned varieties, thanks to Jitterbugdude for the semois and BrownThumb for the PA Red. Pics to follow maybe tomorrow.
 

ProfessorPangloss

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Float trays are the way to go. Even though I filled them a little too tight, the seedlings I got look good. I have done zero to them other than start them and turn on lights and occasionally add water to the trough. I over seeded just to ensure a plant in every cell, and those are starting to come up.20160405_231437.jpg
 

ProfessorPangloss

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In a fit of inspiration, instigated by a conversation with a friend and fellow piper, I ordered some more seeds from Skychaser. They arrived at lightning speed, and so I now have yet another 253-cell float tray, contents as follows:
165 KY15 burley
88 Herzegovinia Flor

I'm not going to grow all of that for myself - I'll probably swap a bunch of it to aforementioned friend for jars of his own stuff - he's a collector of esoteric tins - and I'll try to sell some of the plants at the farmers' market. Float trays are easy and fun.
 

ProfessorPangloss

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It is not to late ?...

A colleague of mine used to farm tobacco here. He said farmers used to plant in June, and as late as 4 July (but that is really pushing it). I will transplant these into flats and put them in the greenhouse as soon as possible. That would get them into the ground maybe by early June, so I should be fine.
 

deluxestogie

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Well into the early 20th century, seedlings were started and raised in outdoor beds, either among shade trees or beneath fabric. So, the earliest "start" date was after the last freeze. Typical transplant dates were in early June in "tobacco regions." Because of the need to start outdoors, the geographical bounds of tobacco growing were constrained by a longer frost-free period than is required today. The later transplant dates necessitated by outdoor starting also pushed the limits of a suitable curing season after harvest.

The use of cold frames, hot frames, greenhouses and other indoor starting methods has changed all that. But in suitable climates, a June transplant date is still a viable option.

Bob
 

ProfessorPangloss

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Crappy iPad photo quality, but you can see my perique plants are totally bangin', and the Catterton are doing great as well. I'm busy as crap, but it's time to move half of those plants into flats. I also got 3 good Semois plants out of the 22 I tried to start, so I'll be saving those seeds.
image.jpg
 

ProfessorPangloss

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I've been ordering 1020 trays and 1204 flats by the bulk (100 at a time) so it was time to move some plants out of the float to give the others room. I took 17 Perique plants, 5 PA Red, and 3 Semois and put them in bigger cells. I'll put them in the greenhouse tomorrow when I can rearrange. I'm 100% full out there with vegetable flats.
20160426_214518.jpg
 

Knucklehead

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They look good. Will the tobacco be planted at your house or the vacant lot? Best of luck.
 

BigBonner

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I made outside beds up until 1994 . The Government out lawed Bromo gas . That was the gas we used to kill the weeds in the beds . we worked up soil where the beds were to be placed .
. We would dig a ditch around the beds , lay out bromo canisters to hold the little cans of gas . Each canister held three cans , and each can was about the size of a Pepsi soda can . It took 12 cans for a 12 x 100 Ft bed .
I would unroll plastic over the beds and cover up the edges in the ditches I dug around the beds . After the plastic was covered to where the gas could not escape , I would take a jersey glove to keep from punching holes in the plastic . Place jersey glove on top of each can and press down to puncture each can . You could hear each can as it started leaking the gas out .
After a few days we would remove the plastic and rake out any clods . I mixed up my seeds in a fine fertilizer and sew the beds by hand . Cover them lightly with straw . The straw was placed in piles under the plastic for gassing as well .
I would scatter the straw after seeding very thinly across the beds .Then I would cover with tobacco cotton . Tobacco cotton was like shear curtains but 12 x 100 ft
I would sew around the last of march . It was still freezing cold at times that time of year here . But some farmers would sew beds earlier than I did .
The thing about outside beds was tobacco plants would come up and grow when the time was right for them to germinate . Mother nature told them when to sprout and grow .
 

deluxestogie

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The thing about outside beds was tobacco plants would come up and grow when the time was right for them to germinate . Mother nature told them when to sprout and grow .
I never thought of that. It makes perfect sense. Below a soil temp of about 50 degrees F, tobacco seeds won't germinate. And they're slow at 60 degrees.

I guess the only catch would be a season like I've had here in SW Virginia this year--toasty warm weather for most of March (my Apricot bloomed), then hard freezes in early April.

Bob
 
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